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Tuesday, June 04, 2013

6 reasons the east of the river "gentrification" panic is a tad premature

They say, "a picture is worth a thousand words."
FYI - There are approximately 140,000 residents (and potential consumers) in DC's Ward 7 and Ward 8.

Post Update: I thought it was clear (but maybe not) that all of the maps posted below were pulled from the respective establishment's own website. If there are location issues, please contact the establishment --- not your's truly -- despite my many talents I still can't update third-party websites. :)

8 comments:

Anonymous
said...

A picture may be worth 1000 words, but there is also an important cartographic text called How to Lie with Maps, by Mark Monmonier. In it, he explains how one can selectively edit a map to show information without providing a full story.

I have no idea what the 'gentrification panic' that you refer to is about, but it's worth noting that this is a limited selection of businesses, and at least one of these maps is downright incorrect. The CVS map makes it look like there are no pharmacies east of 4th Street NW/SW in the entire city. We know that isn't the case. Are there inequities in the region? Sure. But the representation of them on these maps is clearly selective and somewhat misleading.

The maps were pulled from the business websites when I seared for "Washington, DC" locations. If you have a beef with the map then you should contact the webmaster for CVS. :)

Regarding the CVS map the "+" indicate there is more than one store in close proximity, so in fact there are way more CVS stores west of the Anacostia than east of the Anacostia River. The map size is fixed so in order to show all the stores west of the river I wouldn't have been able to show the lack of stores east of the river --- which is the point of the post. :)

Veronica -- Is the CVS for Ward 7 still in Skyland or has it been closed to make way for the "upcoming" (lord knows when that will be) Skyland redevelopment? Last time I drove past the site just about everything was closed down.

Any discrepancies in the map are really insignificant. I find the point well made, comparatively speaking we are far lacking in business amenities EOTR. And gentrification panic is premature at this point.